When I first heard this, I made a connection to Turkey. What first came to my mind was one of the unforgettable scenes in the miniseries “Roots.” The slave who had just been brought from Africa was being whipped by his master, being told to forget his name. Every time he insisted, “My name is Kunta Kinte,” his black body was lashed. The white master was making him “memorize” his new name: “Your name is Toby.” Finally, Kunta Kinte accepted his new name, after being beaten so severely that the strokes became unbearable. But what he went through was also the struggle not to forget his name and transfer it to the minds of his children and grandchildren.
The process in which we attempted to build a nation is also a process in which we redefined who is white and who is black. The white man asked the blacks to forget and change their cultures, languages and names. The places where “the blacks” lived were changed. The names of thousands of villages, towns and streets have been meticulously replaced by Turkish names during the republican history. The names of places in Kurdish, the Zaza language, Armenian, Greek, Assyrian and other local languages have been removed from the minds of the people.
During his visit to Germany, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described the situation wherein Turks forgetting their languages and cultures and becoming assimilated into German culture would be a crime against humanity; but graver such crimes have been committed in these lands.
Uludere and Ortasu, the hometowns of the 35 Kurds who were recently killed in an aerial raid, used to bear names from the Zaza language. The previous name of Uludere was Qılaban, and Ortasu was Roboski. These were removed from the official records, but these names, just like Kunta Kinte, have been passed on to other generations. There is a close relationship between the conversion of the name Qılaban to Uludere, and the refusal of state authorities to offer a simple apology. When Qılaban became Uludere, those people were no longer citizens who maintained their own culture, language and lifestyle; on these lands, they became guests. When Qılaban was converted to Uludere, the lands they used for their herds became military security zones. The routes they were using for their trips and daily travels became borderlines. And most recently, it appears that their children were bait in Turkey’s fight against terror. They were bombed because the state thought that, on their way back from the trip they took for the sake of a few bucks, the group might have included some Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants.
It is very important that the investigation into the Uludere massacre is properly conducted. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has defined a number of criteria for an investigation to be carried out in situations like this. In such cases, the ECtHR pays attention to public opinion, which includes the participation of the relatives of the victims and their lawyers in the legal process. But sadly, the court has already ruled to allow confidentiality in regard to the Uludere investigation; it is impossible for the public to scrutinize the process up until the case is initiated upon completion of the indictment by the prosecutor. The prosecutors are interpreting this rule on confidentiality so broadly that the legal counsels of the victims are not allowed to have access to a document in the file. I think that with this decision on confidentiality, Turkey has gone back to its former behavior. I believe that the only function of this decision was to make sure the public would forget this massacre.
Despite the fact that a long time has passed since the incident, the government has failed to offer an apology to the relatives of the civilians who died in the bombing. In other words, it withheld a simple apology. Likewise, its reflex reaction after the incident shows the government is willing to cover up the mistakes of the army in case it remains under its control. Despite this, I strongly hope national and international public opinion will not forget the Uludere massacre, and Turkey’s steps in this matter will be closely monitored and followed.
